Bulls no threat to Long march to Tri-Nations

Monday 22 May 2006 06.23 EDT
First published on Monday 22 May 2006 06.23 EDT

Sean Long has been tormenting Bradford for almost a decade so it was no surprise that he played the leading role as St Helens exposed a hapless Bulls performance on Saturday. But his Saints team-mate and long-time soul-mate Keiron Cunningham has set the scrum-half a new challenge this season - proving himself on the international stage.

"I'd love to see him playing against the Aussies and Kiwis in the Tri-Nations at the end of the year," said Cunningham, who himself finally came good at Test level in last autumn's series with a string of outstanding performances in a struggling Great Britain team. "No disrespect to the other people who played in that position but Longy's a big-game player, so hopefully he can stay fit and get a Great Britain shirt on this year.

"We've known each other since we were 12 and I've never seen him playing better. Even in a great team performance like that you need a great leader, and for us that's Sean."

Long missed last year's Tri-Nations after having his cheekbone shattered by Terry Newton, the former Wigan hooker who joined Bradford in the winter and recently returned from a seven-month suspension. Newton's every touch was booed on Saturday and the loudest cheer came when Long intercepted the pantomime villain's pass and sprinted clear for what would have been Saints' fifth try - only for the referee Karl Kirkpatrick to rule the 29-year-old offside.

Long had already been denied a spectacular 40-20 kick, initially awarded by Kirkpatrick and his touch judge only to be ruled out by the video referee. Although neither decision ever threatened to derail this irresistible performance by Saints and their livewire scrum-half, they were symptomatic of the current confusion afflicting officials.

The first of Cunningham's two tries could only have been given on the absurd premise that the benefit of the doubt must be awarded to the attacking team, because the BBC pictures provided no conclusive evidence that he had grounded the ball. But 15 minutes later in the closing stages of the first half Saints' captain Paul Sculthorpe was denied the benefit of a far lesser doubt when Jamie Lyon was awarded a try after a single replay. The video referee must have been the only person in the ground convinced he had touched down.

The whole situation is a mess which brings the sport into disrepute, particularly - although no one will admit this publicly - in cup ties when the officials have to rely on BBC pictures rather than Sky's slicker Super League production.

However, the majority of Bradford's players managed to cover themselves in even less glory than the officials, which took some doing. "We were consistent, consistently poor from the first minute to the last," said their disarmingly honest coach Steve McNamara. "Our skill levels were awful, our cohesion was poor, and we didn't defend much better."

They do at least have the chance to bounce back against Leeds at Odsal on Friday. Saints roll on to struggling Wigan the following night, when thousands of their supporters will make the short trip to the JJB Stadium in the expectation of another crushing win against the old enemy.

No team have completed the Super League and Challenge Cup double since Shaun McRae's Saints in 1996, the first summer season, and many have suggested that it is next to impossible since the cup final was shifted from May to August last year, only six weeks before the Super League grand final at Old Trafford. But under the coaching of Daniel Anderson and after the signing of the New Zealand prop Jason Cayless, the current Saints team have the brutal pack and formidable defence necessary to challenge that assumption.